1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus, such as an ink jet printer.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, as an example of various types of liquid droplet ejecting apparatuses, ink jet printers that form characters and/or images on a medium, such as a T-shirt, by ejecting ink droplets as an example of liquid droplets onto the medium have been well known.
In printers having such a configuration, there exists a printer provided with a medium supporting portion that supports a medium; a liquid ejecting portion that ejects liquid droplets onto the medium; and an optical-type detection portion that detects whether or not the medium is supported by the medium supporting portion (for example, JP-A-2007-223074).
Further, in such a printer, a determination as to whether or not a medium is supported by the medium supporting portion is made on the basis of the difference between the light amount of reflected light that arises when light is emitted toward the medium and the light amount of reflected light that arises when light is emitted toward the medium supporting portion. For example, in the case where the reflectance of a medium is higher than that of the medium supporting portion, it is determined that the medium exists in an area which constitutes a target area of the detection by the detection portion and within which the detection portion detects reflected light having a large light amount.
By the way, in such a printer described above, it is difficult to specify an area within which a medium is supported if any difference does not occur between the light amount of the reflected light that arises when light is emitted toward the medium and the light amount of the reflected light that arises when light is emitted toward the medium supporting portion. Thus, depending on the reflectance (color) of the medium supporting portion and the reflectance (color) of a medium supported by the medium supporting portion, a situation where it is difficult to correctly specify an area within which the medium is supported by the medium supporting portion is likely to occur.